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Sunshine Lady

About Sunshine Lady

The mission of the Sunshine Lady Foundation is to invest in organizations and programs dedicated to providing opportunities for the advancement of education, well being and new life choices for disadvantaged people with special empathy for the working poor and families in crisis.

Acknowledging that good luck does not shine equally on everyone, the Sunshine Lady Foundation directors, staff and volunteers, known as Sunbeams, seek out ways to effectively share financial support, goodwill, energy and vision with those who need it most, and to encourage collaborative efforts within the community to help achieve this mission.

The Sunshine Lady Foundation is a private family foundation founded in 1996 by Doris Buffett and funded through her generosity. The mission of the foundation reflects the mid-western values and no-nonsense approach to decision-making that Doris grew up with in Omaha, Nebraska. Each Sunshine Lady Foundation grant is considered an investment, and the decision to grant funds is always based on an expected successful return. Doris Buffett is grateful to her father, Howard Buffett, and brother, Warren Buffett, not only for providing her with the wealth to fund the foundation but also for their inspirational examples of integrity and generosity.

An article in Worth magazine called the Sunshine Lady Foundation “uniquely hands-on, folksy, a person-to-person enterprise – the “un-foundation” because of Doris ‘ hands on, personal involvement with every aspect of the foundation’s grant making process. The same article quotes Karen Green of the Council on Foundations as saying “Only two or three start-up (family foundations) out of the several dozen I’ve seen did anything like the degree of preparatory work that Doris (Buffett) did.”

Doris is passionate about her responsibilities as a philanthropist and a good citizen and her energy and enthusiasm are boundless. Among her many other roles, she has been a first grade teacher, domestic violence crusader, political activist, mother and grandmother. She is the self appointed Buffett family genealogist and her avocation is historic preservation.

Since its inception in 1996 the Sunshine Lady Foundation has awarded more than $100 million in grants.

The Sunshine Lady Foundation does not accept requests for consideration of funding from individuals or organizations outside of the United States, or for the following purposes: